¹³ Dispatches were sent by couriers to all the king’s provinces with the order to destroy, kill and annihilate all the Jews^(A)—young and old, women and children—on a single day, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar,^(B) and to plunder^(C) their goods.

¹¹ The king’s edict granted the Jews in every city the right to assemble and protect themselves; to destroy, kill and annihilate the armed men of any nationality or province who might attack them and their women and children,^[a] and to plunder^(A) the property of their enemies.